Archive | 4:23 pm

Snow, Snow, More Snow

20 Dec

It’s snowing. It almost seems redundant to say so, we’ve already gotten so much and it seems to have no intention of stopping. It’s peaceful to watch – the snow has been taking it’s time, falling gently, looking very unassuming, but weather.com tells me that it’s 14 degrees out and not getting any warmer – tomorrow will be warmer, but still snowing with sleet mixed in. I’m trying to decide when I will be able to get my grocery shopping done. I’ve already made some clever maneuvers in my planning to get dinner on the table either way this weekend, but we’re almost out of milk and juice and I’m kicking myself for not going to the store sooner. We really shouldn’t try to subsist on soda, iced tea and straight egg nog. There’s water still, but that’s not enough for a two year old or his pregnant mommy. I might send dh to the store for the essentials. But he might have to walk. Did I mention 14 degrees?

Right now I’m the only one awake – my son, his friend whom we’re baby sitting today, and the hubby have all settled down for a much needed nap. I tried to follow suit but couldn’t get comfortable or tired enough to fall asleep. I’m feeling too bored to be productive – is that weird? I could balance my checkbook, read, or maybe work on my pile of magazines, but ahhh – what I really want is to get out. Not gonna happen, at least not today. We’ve already committed ourselves to staying home so unless we get brave enough to play outside (in 14 degree weather – ack!) I’ll be inside for awhile. Bored bored bored. I’ve been window shopping for things we don’t need and can’t afford. Just because.

My diet is kind of getting blown to smithereens, obviously, because I’m bored. And cold. I want to make cookies or a pie – and feel housewifey and revel in the warmth coming from a sweet-smelling kitchen – but then I’d have cookies or pie to eat, which wouldn’t help with that dieting thing. Stupid diets. Stupid cookies. I’ve wrapped all the presents I can wrap. We need to pick up the pictures I had printed at Walmart and assemble them into the appropriate gifts before I can wrap those – which means going out, even further than the grocery store. Guess how high on my list of things to  do that is? We’ve got until Thursday. We’ll be fine. But I’m still bored.

I’ve taken quizzes and watched videos and now I can’t turn the on volume on my computer because MM’s friend naps in the living room (no way I’m letting two toddlers “nap” in the same room) – which means I can’t work out, watch tv or even play a video game. My score on Geo Challenge isn’t getting any higher. I already checked the mail – another Christmas card and the credit card bill, which dh paid last week.

I’m feeling listless and appologetic because this is the most boring post ever but that’s okay because I’m bored bored bored. I want to go take pictures of the snow – but I still don’t want to go outside or risk waking up any of the kids (dh included). Plus – I’m worried that 14 degrees is just too cold to risk – I could wait until tomorrow – if we have time to play in the snow and take pictures. This boring post is starting to bore me. So I’ll stop typing any little minute now so you can stop being bored, too – if you are even still reading this. (You are a trooper if you are, and I should give you an award or something – how about some of the cookies that I’m not baking? It’s the thought that counts right – and non-cookies are calorie free!) Okay I’m really going to stop now.

Enjoy your Saturday everyone!

Fall Into Reading 2008: The End

20 Dec

The calendar tells us that fall is over (looking out the window at snow falling onto an already ridiculously deep bed of snow, with no plans of stopping soon – that also tells me fall is over, but you know, details shmetails). That means that the Fall into Reading 2008 Challenge hosted by Kat @ Callapidder Days is also over. How’d you do with your reading lists? I’d say I did not bad – I didn’t finish all of the books on my list, but I did read OTHER books that weren’t on my list (which is silly, because I could have edited the list to include them, but I didn’t because I like to be overly difficult to myself). Anyway, here’s the list I wrote up in September:

So I read three of the books, attempted but didn’t finish two and haven’t gotten to three others yet. But like I said earlier, I did read other books during the fall – here are the non-challenege books that I read when I could have been reading challenge books:

  • The Woman Who Rides Like A Man by Tamora Pierce – Finished October 30, 2008 – SO good. Clearly, since I again devoured this book. I’m really looking forward to reading the last in this quartet and considering reading a LOT of her other works now. But you know, get in line.
  • Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult – Finished November 26, 2008 – This book was an incredible experience – Picoult is such a gifted writer, I couldn’t help but be in awe of her and loved the intricacies of this story – each piece woven into the next. Brilliant.
  • Death: A Life by George Pendle – Finished December 4, 2008 – While I didn’t love this book, I did enjoy it – it was funny and well written and gave a very interesting perspective of life and death and all that other stuff in between.
  • Boomtown by Nowen N. Particular – Finished December 13, 2008 – This story had the potential to be amazing – so many genius anecdotes and tales – but it fell flat and made it very hard to want to continue reading.

And right now I’m reading The Mysterious Benedict Society – which I might have finished had I given into my urge to stay up late last night reading until I passed out – unfortunately I’m pregnant and sleep was inevitable and probably necessary. So that’s an extra four, almost five books on top of the three that I finished for the challenge – so that’s not terrible, right?

Of the books that I read for the challenge, I think Rumors by Anna Godberson was probably my favorite – I loved the first book and the second was possibly even better, although the ending seemed horribly unfair and I kind of wanted to kick things, still I’m looking forward to the next book, Envy, which is due to come out in January I believe. My least favorite was a Jane Eyre, obviously as I didn’t finish it – I know some people love this book, I’m still not sure why. I thought it was awful and depressing and ridiculous to boot.

I think it’s interesting that I read more non-challenge books than the challenge ones – I think my brain doesn’t like reading lists – like it almost feels like homework, because these were books I CHOSE and I still seemed to abandon them in favor of spontaneous reading. I’m not sure what this says – I still like the idea of keeping a running tab of books to read, I have several methods of doing that already, especially with goodreads.com, but I guess for me, this was one step too far in the planning route?

I am still thinking of joining the Spring Reading Challenge, if only to see if lightning strikes twice, you know? I’ll certainly still be reading – that’s for sure! Perhaps if the goal were simply to read x number of books I’d have done better – I did read 7 books this fall which is fairly impressive, don’t you think?

So that’s all folks – hello Winter, good bye Fall Into Reading 2008.